pas By Laura Beach Photography by Gavin Ashworth

Fig. 2. Natural light floods the liv- ing room area. The c. 1841 por- banal trait of Lucretia Bruce Blamire above the fireplace is a family heirloom. Below it is Running Rabbit, c. 1940, by (c. 1854–1949). To the right of the portrait is 50 Years (Reversed) by George Widener (1962–), a 2008 pen-and-ink drawing on paper napkins. Near the ceiling is a 1984 enamel on Masonite painting of horses by William L. Hawkins (1895–1990). Among the works to the left of the fireplace are two mixed-media mobiles by Emery Blagdon (1907–1986), both c. 1956–1984; the skeletal Discrimi- nation and Electricity by Thorn- ton Dial Sr. (1928–), 1992 (near the ceiling); and an untitled black and white cityscape by Ken Grimes (1947–), c. 2004. A recent acquisition, at far left, beside the window, is a 2011 mixed-media White Tower by Sylvain Corentin (1962–).

Monty Blanchard, president of the American Folk Art Museum, and Leslie Tcheyan radiate enthusiasm for everything of quality in folk self-taught, and

Fig. 1. Called Monty and Che by hey met again on a bus Madison Avenue atelier L’Artigiano, had their friends, collectors Edward V. years after they first knew each merged households, exchanging apartments Blanchard Jr. and Leslie Tcheyan other from the Chapin School, in the East 90s for a loft in Tribeca. Their among a few favorite things. The T mixed-media red chair is by Willie where their children were friends. Between requirements were few but precise: plenty Leroy Elliott Jr. (1943–), 1989. At them they have five daughters, the young- of light, not direct. And walls, preferably the left is Melancholy Che, La Ha- est then still in college. By 2010 Edward tall and bare. “We walked into this big, bana, Cuba, a 1964 gelatin silver Vermont Blanchard Jr., a financier who empty space and it was pretty fantastic,” print by Rodrigo Moya ( 1934–). serves as president of the American Folk Tcheyan says, remembering how sunshine Art Museum board, and Leslie Tcheyan, a spilled from large west- and north-facing free-spirited jeweler and owner of the windows onto the expanse of wooden floor. “There are people looking at this material who never thought about folk art. They are fascinated by its excitement and energy. It resonates as something new, fresh and meaningful.”

ménage are struck by the eclecticism of what they see. Dozens of artists jostle for attention in large and small works of every description and all mediums. Sculpture gathers atop partitions and collects in shelves, compelling closer inspection. “Monty has an adventurous eye,” says Frank Maresca of Ricco-Maresca Gallery, who met Blanchard and his late wife, Anne Hill Blanchard, thirty years ago. The New York dealer especially admires Dust Bowl Collage by William L. Hawkins, an elegiac tour de force in black and gray that is among roughly eighty works that the Blanchards gave the Fig. 4. Seal Space Dwelling (number “1000 and 381”) by American Folk Art Museum in 1998 (Fig. 10). The Howard Finster (1916– broadly diverse selection of twentieth-century self- 2001), before 1984. Paint on taught art includes important examples by, among glass, mirrors, and found ma- others, Adolf Wölfli (1864–1930), Bill Traylor, James terials; height 24 ½, width 8, Castle (1899–1977), Bessie Harvey (1929–1994), depth 8 ½ inches. and Morton Bartlett (1909–1993), a New England isolate whose eroticized sculptures of children fracture Norman Rockwell’s saccharine homilies. Thoughtful and precise, Blanchard has a way of penetrating a piece, div- ing beneath its superficial attributes to gauge its emotional essence. Of Bartlett, he says, “He is challenging but also true and deep. We recognized his work as unique, an individual expression that is, in fact, artistic.” “Outsider art has an immediacy Fig. 3. The couple designed the L-shaped display unit that hree years into their domestic project, of discovery. The installation offers fresh evidence that appeals to me. It’s unfiltered, divides the great room. Two c. 1990 painted concrete busts Monty and Che, as friends know them, oc- that collecting itself is a creative exercise. unmodulated,” Blanchard explains. by North Carolina artist Vernon Burwell (1916–1990) in- cupy the space well. They are unassuming and From floor to ceiling, the salon-style hanging Among the collectors he most admires clude, on the slant-front desk, a self-portrait, and, on the T direct, their unvarnished candor startling in two who fills every inch, imparting the feeling of an old-time are Philadelphia modernist Dr. Albert shelf above, right, the abolitionist Sojourner Truth. On the C. Barnes, for his progressive taste same shelf is an unfired clay and mixed-media bust of Abra- have known life at its glossiest. Having attained much cabinet of curiosities or even, perhaps, a fecund ham Lincoln, 1988, envisioned as an African-American by they require less, their newly streamlined lives breez- environment of the sort created by self-taught and intuitive approach to display; James “Son” Thomas (1926–1993). On the floor at the left ily in sync with lower Manhattan’s youthful, caffein- artists such as Howard Finster, who devised his and Herbert Waide Hemphill Jr., an is Untitled [Woman Leaning] in cement and stone by Nek ated vibe. “Ce n’est pas banal,” Tcheyan’s French Paradise Garden on four acres in rural Georgia. American Folk Art Museum found- Chand (1924–), 1984. Above the side table to the right mother exclaimed the first time she saw their new “It’s not a mechanical process. We spend a lot of er who stimulated interest in self-taught hangs the colorful crayon, pen, and pencil on paper Sum- place. The name stuck. Down to the couple’s statio- time arranging. It’s very satisfying when it works,” art with his vanguard 1970 exhibition mer Time by (1900–1982), c. 1979. The nery, it’s been Pas Banal ever since. says Blanchard, who elicits an orchestrated perfor- Twentieth Century Folk Art and 1974 painted and shell-encrusted concrete reptile by Q. J. Ste- Other second-nesters might have occupied them- mance from his unruly chorus. He pauses to inspect book 20th-Century American Folk Art phenson (1920–1997) on the floor below was purchased by and Artists, co-written with Julia Monty and his first wife, Anne, from the artist in early selves by selecting furniture or remodeling the a collaged street scene, urban and gritty, by C. T. 1990s. An untitled drawing by Martín Ramírez (1895– kitchen. For Blanchard and Tcheyan, the challenge McClusky, a self-taught California artist who is Weissman. The Smithsonian Ameri- 1963), c. 1950, hangs to the right above an undated draw- was to arrange their collection of outsider and self- said to have worked as a circus clown. Two more can Art Museum acquired the lion’s ing by Lonnie Holley (1950–) and four watercolor picto- taught art, which Blanchard began assembling in McCluskys call out from across the room. share of Hemphill’s collection between graphs by Ben Hotchkiss (1945–), c. 1970–1980. 1984, as a syncopated summary of their own voyage First-time visitors to the Blanchard-Tcheyan 1986 and 1998. Since then, once

26 An s tique JY/AUL UGUST 2013 26 Fig. 5. As portraiture has long been a staple of the traditional dining room, Monty and Che thought it would be fun to hang Sumner Family, a 1960 group portrait by Jon Serl (1894–1993) that is something of a twisted take on the subject, in the dining area. To the immediate right of that painting is Untitled (Three Buses) by Martín Ramírez, c. 1950 (partially visible); and be- low, Rt. 66 out of Arizona into California, an undated colored pencil and ink on paper drawing by Joseph E. Yoakum (1890– 1972). At the upper left are a 1980s mixed-media scarecrow construction by Hawkins Bolden (1914–2005) and, to its right, near the ceiling, a mixed-media assemblage by Keith Goodhart (1956–). The architectural view above the corner cupboard is Franklin County Hall Justice by William Hawkins. The large Fig. 7. The French self- painted cardboard and wood col- taught artists Alfred lage to its right is What Peoples (1951–) and Corinne be Doin’ by Purvis Young Marié, known as A.C.M., (1943–2010), 1990. made this untitled struc- ture c. 1990 using re- Fig. 6. One of the collectors’ fa- claimed and recycled com- vorites is Eve by Herbert Single- puter and printer parts. It ton (1945–2007), carved and stands 26 inches tall. painted cedar, 20 by 30 inches.

outré outsider art has steadily moved mainstream. The Blanchards moved to Manhattan in 1979. “The big names As southerners, Blanchard and his late wife felt an affinity in the Soho art scene at the time—Julian Schnabel, David Salle, for self-taught art, much of which is visionary or even overtly Robert Longo—were distant, cool, and intellectual. “What was religious and not a little of which was made by African going on in the East Village was more representational and direct, Americans, too often marginalized by poverty and lack of and more to our taste. We fell in love with a painting by Jean- formal education, recurring themes in the outsider narrative. Michel Basquiat (1960–1988) but had to pass. At several thou- From a small town in rural eastern North Carolina, Blanchard sand dollars, it was over our budget,” Blanchard says. met Anne, an Alabama native, in Boston. The couple began buying what Blanchard calls outsider art The couple combined trips home with visits to local folk in 1984, after he was introduced to it by a colleague, Phila- artists. In North Carolina they claimed a fearsome cement delphia attorney Sheldon M. Bonovitz, whose collection, reptile by Garysburg craftsman Q. J. Stephenson (see Fig. 3) formed with his wife, Jill, is a promised gift to the Philadel- and a bust of Martin Luther King by Ahoskie woodcarver phia Museum of Art. Arliss Watford (b. 1924). When a concrete bust by Vernon “I walked into his office and there were works by the mas- Burwell of Rocky Mount surfaced in the Sotheby’s 1996 sale ters, artists such as Bill Traylor, Joseph Yoakum, Simon Spar- of the collection of choreographers and dancers Geoffrey row, and William Hawkins. Seeing my interest, Sheldon Holder and Carmen de Lavallade, the Blanchards, having met referred me to John Ollman at what is now the Fleisher Oll- the artist, recognized the work as a self-portrait (see Fig. 3). man Gallery in Philadelphia. I went immediately and placed MAY/JN U E 2012 26 Fig. 8. Beyond the dining en- closure on the north wall are two recent mixed-media sculp- tures by the self-taught French artists Sylvain (1968–) and Ghyslaine Staëlens (1960–): La Sentinelle on the left, and, above it, to the right, La Ville. In the right foreground is Poli- tician, a 1988 mixed-media sculpture by Willie Leroy El- liott Jr. To its left is an untitled 1963 gouache by Carlo Zinelli (1916–1974). Among the oth- er works are, near the ceiling on the right, Looking for a Dear Friend by Sr. (1928– ), 1980s; and below it, an oil on cardboard of a ukulele-playing man sur- rounded by exotic beauties by Ellis Ruley (1882–1959), c. 1950s.

Fig. 9. Two works by Sam Doyle (1906–1985) are seen in this view looking through the great room into the study: a 1978 oil on tin portrait of Ray Charles and a 1982 depiction of a devil spirit inscribed “I’ll a number of things on hold. Through John we Hit You Too Man!,” painted in soon met the New York dealers Shari Cavin and enamel on a window shade. Randall Morris, with whom we spent much time.” Hanging on the wall at the far lanchard bought one piece from Ollman on left is Christ, a 1997 wood, the spot, a two-foot-high painted and mir- nail, and wire sculpture by Keith Goodhart. To its right is rored glass tower (Fig. 7), meant to represent B a c. 1920 watercolor farm scene heaven, by Howard Finster, a southern minister who by J. C. Huntington and, be- spread the gospel through garrulous paintings on low it to the left, Crucifiction board and other unconventional materials. There is by (1892–1987), genius in Finster’s adroit representation of the after- c. 1945–1955. Above the clere- life’s vaporous heights, along with shrewd comedy story windows are a c. 1990 in his depiction of the crowded confines behind the self-portrait by Roy Ferdinand pearly gates. With characteristic élan, the artist signed (1959–2004) and, to its right, Proverbs 26:17 by John Harvey the piece: “Howard Finster, Man of Vision.” (1951–), late 1980s. On the Another treasure is Running Rabbit by Traylor, wall below, on the far right is a who was born a slave on an Alabama plantation mixed-media diptych depicting and developed a knack for conveying move- Washington and Lincoln by ment—and, implicitly, narrative—with a minimum Felipe Jesus Consalvos (1891– of piquant gesture. “It’s probably the Traylor I c. 1960?). would grab in a fire,” Blanchard says of the colored- pencil drawing of the startled creature with upright ears and outstretched legs that hangs above the explored the African American experience in the Gullah and Tcheyan erected the partitions that partially enclose A group of works on the theme of Adam and fireplace. South. Two works by the Mexican American immigrant a dining area and provide additional space for displaying Eve includes a carved and painted panel by Herbert Blanchard recalls that he traded one of Martín Ramírez, a brilliant draftsman and institutionalized light-sensitive vernacular photography. Above the dining Singleton (Fig. 6), who recasts lapsarian legend as Ramírez’s signature caballero drawings of Mexican schizophrenic, remain in the collection, confirming table, in a sly poke at convention, they hung a hollow- racial struggle. Singleton’s conspicuously white cowboys for four drawings by William O. Gold- the artist’s graphic originality and Escher-like fascina- eyed family group by Jon Serl. Visible beyond the dining serpent seduces a submissive black Eve. In the bath, ing (1874–1943), a landscape on paper by Yoakum tion with perspective. area are two large, colorful paintings by Doyle—one of an emancipated Eve casts a lusty eye on the forbid- (see Fig. 5), and a painting by Sam Doyle, who In one of their few modifications to the loft, Blanchard a devil spirit, the other of Ray Charles (see Fig. 9). den fruit in an anonymous oil painting of about

26 An s tique JY/AUL UGUST 2013 26 1940. Above a doorway, pinup photographs of his pairing outsiders like Morton Bartlett with con- dishy wife, Marie, by Eugene Von Bruenchenhein summate art world insiders such as Cindy Sher- (1910–1983), are playful and intimate. man, both known for their conceptual photog- As president of the American Folk Art Museum, raphy. In keeping with these worldly times, the Blanchard saw the institution through perilous American Folk Art Museum’s new curator of times, earning a reputation as an effective, col- twentieth-century and contemporary art, Cana- laborative manager. He is quick to credit the dian-born art historian Valérie Rousseau, brings contributions of others, noting that it is especially an international perspective to her work. through the leadership of chairperson Laura Parsons Blanchard and Tcheyan, too, have moved beyond and the generosity of Joyce B. Cowin, a trustee, the typecast confines of American art, adding floral that the museum is now on solid footing. abstractions by the Czech artist Anna Zemánková (1908–

Blanchard saw the American Folk Art Museum through perilous times, but he is quick to credit the contributions of others—especially the leadership of Laura Parsons and the generosity of Joyce Cowin

Sometimes lost in the coverage of the institution’s 1986), cobwebbed towers by Frenchman Sylvain near-death experience and the fate of its former Corentin (see Fig. 2), and the twiggy assemblages home—the Williams and Tsien-designed bijou that of Sylvain and Ghyslaine Staëlens, whose desiccated, MoMA acquired and may demolish—is the Ameri- fiber-wrapped figures dare one to look away. Known can Folk Art Museum’s outsized role in moving as A.C.M., the French couple Alfred and Corinne critical conversation on outsider and self-taught art Marié weld tiny bits of salvaged electronics into forward and center. The museum began in 1965 with intricate tabletop architecture (Fig. 7). The collectors an exhibition of the embraceable stone sculptures of see elegance and coherence in these eccentric, single- (1874–1951) and continues minded visions. this summer with twin displays and a symposium, Blanchard shares the outsider’s impulse to fill the set for September 16, devoted to Bill Traylor, whose page. At Tcheyan’s insistence, a spot was left blank Fig. 10. Dust Bowl Collage elegantly quirky works on paper transcend their genre on their bedroom wall. “I would never want to feel by William Hawkins, in their wide appeal. that we had finished,” she says. 1989. House paint and col- “There are people looking at this material who Wangle a visit—or two—to Pas Banal. The place lage on masonite, 39 ¼ by Fig. 11. Blanchard and Tcheyan are fas- 48 inches. American Folk never thought about folk art. They are fascinated by has an improvisational flair. New pieces arrive. cinated by the formal properties of Art Museum, Blanchard- its excitement and energy. It resonates as something Others depart, rarely permanently. Generous with hand-forged African currency, much of Hill Collection, gift of M. new, fresh and meaningful,” says Tim Hill, a Birming- the trove, the couple lent works by Ramírez to it dating from the late nineteenth or Anne Hill and Edward V. ham, Michigan, gallerist for whom the fine-folk Madrid’s Reina Sofia Museum and is currently early twentieth century. Among the Blanchard Jr. distinction has never held much meaning. loaning an ink by Achilles G. Rizzoli (1896–1982) works of art visible on the wall above are: a collage and embroidery God Bless The museum lentIl to London’s Hayward Gallery, and a Serl to San America by Charlie Levin, c. 1945 (top left); an untitled drawing of a girl with a dog on cardboard by Bill Traylor, c. 1939–1942 (second row, third from Enciclopedico Palazzo Jose State University’s Thompson Gallery. left); an untitled ink drawing by Hiroyuki Doi (1946–), 2011, and a del Mondo (The Ency- Blanchard and Tcheyan started their new life framed mixed-media collage by C. T. McClusky, c. 1940–1950 (third clopedic Palace of the in Tribeca by moving eight pieces into the row, second and third from left). World), an eleven-foot empty space. Among them were a nineteenth- tall architectural century portrait, a family heirloom; High Wire model by the Italian- Lines, a resolutely forward-looking crayon draw- American immigrant ing of about 1965 by Eddie Arning (1898–1993); Marino Auriti (1891– and two favorite pieces of African currency, a 1980), to this year’s spiral and a bell, one suggesting life’s meandering Venice Biennale, where beauty, the other to ring in the future. it is the centerpiece of “Art is not about accepting or rejecting, it’s about the International Art understanding. Monty and Leslie are on a journey,” Exhibition. In what is Tim Hill observes. Blanchard says simply, “We becoming accepted were lucky enough to see things early and willing practice, curator Mas- to go where others weren’t.” similiano Gioni is

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